While the Mayor of the Merafong Local Municipality (Carletonville, Fochville, Wedela), Nozuko Best, boasted about improved service delivery in her 2025 State of the City Address, police were forced to use rubber bullets to disperse protesting community members outside the Carletonville Civic Centre.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) suspects tempers would have flared even higher if residents knew the State of the City Address cost a staggering R3,5 million.
The money should have been used to pay off some of the Municipality’s debt (exceeding R2,8 billion) to Eskom and Rand Water, which continues to grow monthly.
The Gauteng Legislature’s Committee for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) also expressed concern this past week about Merafong’s deteriorating financial situation, resulting in prolonged service disruptions.
Infrastructure in Carletonville’s central business district continues to decay, while the Municipality’s own performance assessment shows it achieved only 34% of its service delivery targets in the past financial year.
So, while the Mayor dreams of solar farms and promoting tourism, the Municipality cannot even manage basic tasks such as replacing broken streetlights or fixing potholes.
Her address once again demonstrated that she and the ANC are totally out of touch with what is happening on grass-roots level.
The only way to save Merafong is to oust the ANC at the polls.
